Sure, IT consolidation efforts mandated by mayoral executive order — which have transformed the Division of Technology from an agency once one-fifth the size it is now — have been a priority for Frank, the city’s Chief Technology Officer.

But often, the cry from the city’s industrious technology community has been one caused by a national intrigue in government transparency that tech can facilitate.

Cities like New York — which opened an impressive amount of city datasets for public use, and sponsored a $20,000 contest to attract software developers to create interesting technology applications and web apps — are pressing ahead with new data initiatives.

But Philadelphia lags behind. The city’s first big data win came when SEPTA released raw data around station geolocation and schedules, well after developers took their own stab at collecting data — by scraping HTML pages. Since, we’ve seen little movement from either developers or the city.

When we first covered Frank in May last year, he spoke before a crowd of Refresh Philly attendees and gave them a charge to come up with data they wanted. The effort dwindled, due in part to a lack of movement in the community and too, on actionable steps from the city.

Now, as Frank enters his first fiscal year with a serious $120 million capital investment in city technology, we’re wondering what’s next.

Late last week, we met with the CTO to discuss problems plaguing the department around opening those datasets and followed-up with Frank about how things have been for the last year, his first in public office. After the jump, that conversation.

Our community wants to understand why Philadelphia is so far behind when it comes to the availability of transparent city data for use by third-party developers.

It’s pretty hard to give you access to data if I don’t have a platform to give you data on, if I don’t have the infrastructure. Of the [$120 million in IT capital], one big chunk of it is to completely rebuild Phila.gov, and on the inside, the city’s intranet Citynet. Really, at its core, build a whole new kind of web platform that both sides use. Underneath it, we’re plugging in architecturally how we’re going to provide access transparently to city data.

We have such a large amount of remedial work to do and I feel through large measure, we’re catching up over a 10-year period. We have so much legacy [infrastructure]. It doesn’t do me any good if data is in Access databases. It’s not shareable. I’m not converting every database in the city. It’s not uncommon — I won’t name specific departments — to have 500 or 1,000 Access database datasets. What do you do with that? My point about infrastructure, I really need to create an environment that’s leveragable.

Everybody is like ‘why cant we do it yet?’ Besides that there so many moving parts, now there is an interesting set of questions we are asking ourselves. How do we leverage the broader volunteer web and open-source community to give us the best ideas around Phila.gov and how we make it accessible to our citizens. Now that I have the capital and I’m building the back-end stuff, I can now work with an open-source group to say, ‘what standards? How do we want to do this?’

What’s the timeline for this?

Now that I’m in fiscal year 2011, we have a whole separate group which is rearchitecting the application and data infrastructure for the city. Right now, we’re writing RFPs and doing things we need to do around actually standing up and building components of the architecture. We’re settling on our technology architecture for the web—I plan on using Alfresco for content store. We have Sharepoint we’re leveraging for a .NET framework and we’re connecting the two. We’re building a data engine that can be used both fo the public web and intranet.

Of the city’s 52 agencies, who’s on board? Who has data that is already accessible?

What I want to do is target low-hanging fruit first and say ‘what are the data sets that we can make available now.’ We’re looking at building a generic engine we can use for data access, but that doesn’t mean we cant do a one-off pilot with a specific data set so we can start experimenting.

When will we see the first dataset available to the public?

My goal would be over the next six months. Only reason I say six months is because I’m focused on building an engine and focusing on the intranet side of the data. Over the next month, I’m going to be booting up the [web community] group, to help me define input from the outside. Inside, the internal data group, I think the goals are different.

Congratulations on landing $6.4 million in broadband stimulus funding for public computer centers. A year ago, you were applying for the first round, and ultimately lost. What made this round work?

[After the first round], we went to the state and we got their input. And this time, DOT supported the submission of three proposals again, but it was really just this one that the city was [helping author]. The public computer center piece was something that as I got input from the last round, I got a sense that we would have strength. Second, it really addresses the issue of digital divide.

It’s been a little more than a year since we started covering you. How are you gauging your success and failure?

I think about that constantly. I came into city government bright-eyed, let’s call it naïve. I had never been a part of city government, having been involved in the private sector. I’ve done consulting to government but there’s nothing like being in the middle. You have to say, that in many ways, it’s taking longer to accomplish certain things that I took for granted. When I talk about building those databases, I’m very frustrated with the progress of being able to roll out a core platform. Now I think I’ve got there.

But it’s also a great accomplishment that the mayor now has fully embraced a major technology investment in the city. He fully gets it.

I would have to say I’m dissapointed in not being able to create more magic sooner. My impacts aren’t as readily visibile as I’d like to see, to have to come in and take the little money we had during the budget crisis. Remember, we now are merged. Before, I was less than one-fifth of the total IT in the city, so my ability to get things done has increased. So the ability to get $120 million and to be able to reinvest my savings into IT and create a whole new governing structure, I give myself pretty good grades on that, an “A” or an “A-minus.”

How would you grade your progress on other fronts?

I would have to say that in being able to develop external applications and things like that, I would give myself, if I was allowed to curve it, I give myself a “B.” You just can’t move as quickly as a the city. But, our business services portal is moving and as we get through this calendar year, I expect to be able to do full online licences and permits. We’re building a whole new paradigm for how you do business.

How have your conversations with the mayoral cabinet changed over the last year?

Being at the table has proved the point. There’s a voice at the table that sees the world with technology glasses on. Whether we like it or not, [technology] has a tremendous societal impact.

Every Friday, Technically Philly brings you an interview with a leader or innovator in Philadelphia s technology community. See others here.

Last week, Google thanked the 1,100 applicants who entered its Google Fiber for Communities contest, an initiative to test high-speed, next generation broadband — known as ‘gigabit’ fiber — that is up to 100 times faster than current average household Internet connections. As we’ve written in this column before, Google plans to wire between 50,000 and a half-million households with gigabit, an experiment which could have broad implications for technological innovation and national broadband policy.

The thank-you was but a tease for Philly’s technology community, which, as part of the City’s application to the Google Fiber for Communities contest, created “Gigabit City,” a repository where folks brainstorm specific projects that may be possible with gigabit technology. Like everyone else, they’ll have to wait until Google announces the winners in the fall, but City of Philadelphia Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank isn’t sitting around. He’s turned the city’s application into an opportunity to engage Philadelphia around next-generation broadband policy.

In the process, he’s been able to push the city’s telecommunication heavies  — Comcast and Verizon — to consider Philadelphia’s future.

Read the full story over at Philly Mag’s Philly post.

In a conversation last week, city Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank responded to some of the specifics of the article, which posited alternatives to in-house development of the application and challenged the city to take advantage of free app technologies and to turn to Philadelphia’s talented and civic-focused developers for help.

Frank said that contrary to statements in the article, the application hasn’t cost taxpayers anything — it’s been a labor of love for several employees in the department — and that the city did research low-cost and free, third-party options but found that its solution was the strongest.

So, then, why is it two months late?

What started as a front-end application to serve citizens has been transformed into a cross-departmental project, Frank says, tieing the app’s complaints into 311′s queue system, so that the same moderation process involved with the department’s standard customer service is integrated across the platforms.

“I had the front-end done overnight,” he says. “The reason I don’t have it out today is because of the desire on [311's] end to have it entered into their work management system.”

And as for a release date? Frank was mum on a hard date. “I’ve asked them, I’ve given you enough time, I’m committed to the citizens, now I’m pushing it, I’ve given you a month or two, now let’s make it happen,” he said.

Frank also voiced some opposition to Councilman Bill Green‘s belief that the Division of Technology should spend more time focusing on citizens and less time concerned managing servers.

“I wish i could spend all my time focusing on citizens,” Frank said. “Unfortunately, in a city that has somewhere between 800 and 1000 servers, 52 agencies, 19 data rooms, 300 network locations, I have to manage servers. I have to build a protected stable environment to handle an online world.”

See our Q&A with Frank this Friday for more details and a full-length interview with the CTO, a conversation that covers the city’s plans to release data to thid-party developers, consolidation of city information technology, and how Frank grades his tenure in office with 10 months remaining until the mayoral primary.

Last week, while the City of Philadelphia was busy celebrating the country’s 234th birthday, another anniversary passed by with little fanfare. July 5 marked three months since the city announced it was developing its own 311 iPhone application to allow citizens to access city data on the go. It also marked the day the application was two months late.

In an April 5 announcement, Division of Technology chief Allan Frank said the application would be available in May, yet there’s still no sign of it on the city’s 311 site or in the App Store.

While we’re certainly on board with city government embracing new technologies, there were several alternatives to the city developing the application itself that would have sped up its development and saved precious taxpayer dollars.

Read more at Philly Mag’s Philly Post.

When it comes to fighting crime, Philadelphia is undergoing a video revolution.

Within a few short years, the city is likely to be blanketed by a network of more than a thousand state-of-the-art, high resolution cameras, scanning high-crime areas, critical structures such as the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, SEPTA stops and inner city streets.

But this is only the beginning. The number of cameras on the network is expected to expand exponentially in the near future. City officials are working on ways to link their Police Department operation with surveillance cameras used by such parties as local universities and private businesses to create a super-network of public space surveillance that can feed images back to the video monitoring room at Police Headquarters at Eighth and Race Sts.

Technically Philly worked with former Inquirer metro columnist Tom Ferrick’s recently-launched public affairs news site Metropolis to take an in-depth look at the expanding program in a three-part series published this week. For more, check out the report on Metropolis:

Part One: A New Way To Combat Crime
Part Two: How Other Cities Make It Work
Part Three: How Technology Makes It Happen

Early this week, Councilman Bill Green and five members of City Council introduced legislation that would change Philadelphia’s Charter to include a permanent Chief Information Officer.

As we reported, the bill would continue consolidation of the city’s Information Technology resources and it would require that the CIO develop annually a 5-year technology strategy, among other changes.

We spoke with Green on Monday to put into perspective the reason for the legislation and whether or not the bill represents concern for current Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank’s leadership. Green’s answers, after the jump.

Councilman Bill Green

This emphasis on reforming technology in city government – and ultimately, cutting city expenses by going paperless – has been your plan since your campaign [PDF]. What does this legislation mean for those ends?

Essentially, I’m trying to put in place a permanent structure that will make investment in technology and continual upgrade of our technology a permanent part of city government. I think Nutter has a great guy in [Chief Technology Officer Allan] Frank. I’d like to look at 5-year planning, with a specific emphasis on paperless government and improving efficiency of the workforce. Ultimately, my goal is to save $200 million a year, once the concept and plan are fully implemented. That will take 5 to 8 years.

What specifically does the bill bring to the city’s technology strategy?

We should constantly plan ahead, look at what’s available, look at how private industry does it, and make a long range plan as we implement technology. Specifically, [the Chief Information Officer] would have to submit a 5-year plan] to the Mayor and City Council a week after the budget address, so there can be consistency in planning with respect to technology. The plan must include productivity enhancements and how we’re going to eventually go paperless. In 1952 when they wrote the [Home Rule Charter [PDF]], no one imagined there would be a paperless system. Many other cities are doing a permanent CIO by ordinance, but we can’t do that here because of the Charter.

What do you think is the most important value of having the CIO create an annual technology plan?

If you force all future administrations to put together a 5-year plan, someone’s going to be thoughtful about it. You cant do long-term investments and you can’t achieve productivity increases unless you lay out something for the long-range.

How does this legislation differ from the executive order last year placing then CIO Allan Frank in the role of CTO on the Mayor’s cabinet?

It differs because [the CIO would] report to the Mayor, not Managing Director. It also moves all the employees into a single department with one budget. I understand why they chose to do the executive order, but department heads aren’t giving up their IT portion of budget easily.

Do you think CTO Allan Frank been as affective as he can be?

I’m not at all concerned with Frank, but I’d like to see us start implementing things. It’s been two years into the administration and we haven’t made any serious technology implementations. The sooner we invest the dollars, the sooner we’ll have the savings. The Mayor mayor could [appoint] another CTO, but I certainly would expect that he would choose Allan Frank.

Councilman Bill Green shows an RFID tag and reader that could be used to enforce dumpster laws.

Technology can be a dirty business.

Councilman Bill Green, dressed in a pressed pinstripe suit and flip-up sunglasses, led reporters on a field trip this afternoon to an illegally fenced-in block of Center City that hides 30 unregistered dumpsters, he says.

The councilman was there to demonstrate a solution to tracking those dumpsters Radio-frequency identification or RFID medallions that will help the city regulate unlicensed and unlawful containers. Green introduced legislation in February that would require that trash containers are fitted with the UHF chipset.

There are currently about 5,700 dumpsters registered with the city that generate $261,480 in licensing fees. With new legislation, Green hopes that the city could collect more than $2 million in fees. Additionally, Green hopes to cash in on uncollected citations. As of 2008, the city is owed a half million dollars from containers that violated dumpster laws.

As a dozen members of construction crews watched a crowd surround Green on the 1600 block of Ionic Street, between Chestnut and Sansom streets, he pointed a handheld device at a small, business-card sized medallion attached to a graffiti-covered dumpster overflowing with broken-down cardboard boxes.

“Simply aim the gun, shoot it, and it brings up information on who owns [the dumpster],” he yelled into microphones over a cacophony of noise caused by nearby work.

Though the handheld devices cost up to $4,000 per unit and up to 45 city employees could receive the devices, the technology investment would pay for itself within six months, Green says. Another possibility is that manufacturers would pay for the devices and receive a portion of the revenue generated by the city.

Moments earlier, told not to enter the city block by a worker – who noticed that Green was walking past the fence – Green introduced himself, and informed the worker of the offenses. “I’m going to show the press what’s going on,” he said, leading the group through the thin entranceway. Inside, trash piled atop dozens of the green, red and burgundy containers strewn across the asphalt and on the sidewalks of the hidden street.

Green has met opposition from the business community, including the Chamber of Commerce, over the introduction of stricter dumpster laws. “I expect the Chamber of Commerce to be against this,” he says. “But the whole goal of this is to improve quality of life in Center City.”

Later, as employees of Green’s office showed more of the refuge strewn about Ionic Street, a nearby resident slipped into the forbidden area to show support for the cause.

“It’s gotten worse on the block,” Karen Nicolini, dressed in business attire, told a city employee. “I’m glad you’re doing this,” she said, referring to similar dumpster concerns on 2000 block of Moravian Street.

There is currently an RFP issued for about 50 handheld devices that could be retrofitted with the RFD-reading technology. Green anticipates that the legislation will be passed in the fall when City Council returns from recess.